Myanmar junta’s counteroffensive continues with deadly airstrike on Wetlet

Four civilians were killed on Wednesday when a junta fighter jet bombed resistance-held villages in Wetlet Township, Sagaing Region, according to local sources. Four bombs fell at around 5:30pm on the village of Yoe Pin Kone, some three and a half miles northwest of Shein Ma Kar, where the military maintains a garrison on the west bank of the Ayeyarwady River opposite Mandalay Region. “Three men and a woman died on the spot when their homes were struck by flying shrapnel,” a man from Wetlet Township said. At least six other people were injured in the attack, which also damaged several buildings including houses, a school, and a monastery in Yone Pin Kone. Wetlet Township is opposite Madaya and Singu townships in Mandalay Region, which have both been the sites of recent fighting between the military and resistance forces. According to residents of the township, the emergency response to the airstrike was hindered by a volley of artillery fire from Madaya, some ten miles to the east. Damage from the airstrike in Yone Pin Kone village, Wetlet Township on August 27 (Photo: Wetlet Information Network) According to the Wetlet Information Network, a civilian-run organisation based in the township, confirmed a total death toll was four, including three men in their 40s and a woman in her 50s. The military had carried out another strike in Wetlet Township the day before using a paramotor—a manned, propelled paraglider useable as light airborne craft—in the village of Zee Hpyu Kone, damaging a house and monastery, according to Zee Hpyu Kone residents. “A paramotor dropped two bombs near a monastery in the northern part of Zee Phyu Kone village, and another hit a civilian house,” said a resistance fighter involved in the rescue effort. “The roof of a shrine hall in the monastery compound was damaged, and a cow was killed in the attack,” he added. No civilian casualties were reported, as villagers were away from home working in their fields. Two days earlier, the same village had been hit by shelling from a junta base on the outskirts of Ayadaw, a junta-controlled town some10 miles to the west. Local sources said the military regime has escalated attacks on villages in Wetlet Township since placing it under a state of emergency in late July, along with more than 60 other townships throughout the country. “Many people have nowhere to go and are sheltering in improvised bomb shelters, which have collected water and are usually wet during the rainy season,” a township resident said. The military regime controls Wetlet’s urban wards as well as five villages in the township’s rural areas. Clashes have continued in the township since junta troops advanced into the village of Sint Kaing near Sagaing Township in late July. “Resistance forces fought with junta troops near Sint Kaing, trying to repel their advance into Wetlet Township,” a resistance fighter based in the township said. “The military also fired artillery from the nearby towns of Madaya and Ayadaw and have carried out at least five airstrikes in Wetlet in this month.”

Myanmar junta’s counteroffensive continues with deadly airstrike on Wetlet

Rescue workers said the response to the junta aerial attack were hindered by an artillery barrage fired from a neighbouring township

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